ARTICLES ABOUT TRAFFIC HOMICIDE INVESTIGATOR BY DATE - PAGE 4

Fort Lauderdale police need help identifying the driver in a fatal hit-and-run accident that happened late last month. On Aug. 29., a white, late-model Ford Taurus station wagon was westbound on Sunrise Boulevard, police said. Just before 9 p.m., the car struck Michael F. Johnson at the 1200 block of East Sunrise Boulevard as he tried to cross the road. Witnesses said the car did not brake and continued westbound. Johnson, 32, died on Sunday of his injuries. Police said the car was suspected of having severe front-end and windshield damage from the impact.

Checking every lead that he could think of, traffic homicide investigator Paul Griffith spent two months searching for William "Bill" Stewart to deliver the heartbreaking news. Stewart's identical twin brother, David Stewart, 62, had been struck and killed on June 5 while crossing in the 200 block of 19th Street in Fort Lauderdale. All that Griffith knew was that Bill Stewart may have been homeless. Then on Aug. 22, police came across Bill Stewart by accident. Bill Stewart was struck and killed while crossing in the 700 block of Federal Highway in Fort Lauderdale.

Police are looking for the relatives of a pedestrian who was hospitalized in critical condition after he was run over by a car early Wednesday morning. John Joseph Costa, 36, tried to cross Sunrise Boulevard southbound at the 1700 block when he stepped in front of an '87 Chevrolet Spectrum at 12:30 a.m., police spokesman Clinton Ward said. Costa was taken to Broward General Medical Center. Jeffrey T. Tomasetti, of Hollywood, was driving the Spectrum that collided with Costa, police said.

A man who was run over by a car while crossing Sunrise Boulevard on Monday died at Broward General Medical Center Tuesday night. Police are still looking for the driver of the car. The driver fled after he hit Fort Lauderdale resident William E. White, 71, as he crossed East Sunrise Boulevard at the 2600 block about 10:15 p.m. on April 1. A witness tried to follow the fleeing driver, police said, but lost him near the intersection of State Road A1A...

Southbound Interstate 95 was closed to traffic for four hours Wednesday night after a pedestrian was struck and killed by a driver who left the scene, a Florida Highway Patrol traffic homicide investigator said. The accident, which ended with the pedestrian's body being mutilated in the roadway, occurred about 8:30 p.m. south of the Miami Gardens exit, a Florida Highway Patrol traffic homicide investigator said. Officials say the pedestrian was struck by several cars after the initial hit, causing body parts to be strewn across the highway from the median to the guardrail.

A pedestrian struck by a car as he crossed the intersection at Sunrise Boulevard and Federal Highway on Sunday was hospitalized in critical condition, but police haven't been able to reach his relatives. William Alton Richards, whose last known address was 215 NE 10th Ave. in Hallandale, is in the intensive care unit at Broward General Medical Center, police said. Richards, 51, was struck by a southbound 1994 Thunderbird shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday. Anyone with information about Richards or his family is asked to call Fort Lauderdale police traffic homicide investigator Jill Hirsch at 761-5753.

Police are seeking witnesses to help find a red convertible they say hit and killed a man. Davis Bradley, 74, of Fort Lauderdale, was struck Saturday night as he crossed the northbound lanes in the 4100 block of State Road A1A, police said. The convertible dragged Bradley's body a quarter of a mile and then sped off. His body was found several blocks away in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. A couple in a car chased the convertible but was unable to get a license tag number. "We have little to go on. All we have is a red convertible," Fort Lauderdale Police spokeswoman Sonya Friedman said Sunday.

Police have found the red Ford Mustang they think was used in Saturday night's hit-and-run death of William Norris. Fort Lauderdale Police on Wednesday said they were looking for a woman who owns the car they have now impounded. The car was found in a Pompano Beach body shop after a tow-truck driver recognized the car's description from a newspaper story. The driver had been called on Monday to the car owner's home in Tamarac to pick up the vehicle. Police say the woman who owns the car also may be the driver who left the scene after hitting Norris in the 2500 block of Oakland Park Boulevard.

Police are looking for the driver who struck a moped early Wednesday, sending the scooter and rider flying 300 feet. The driver fled, leaving Julio Rios, 39, of the 400 block of Southwest 27th Terrace, injured on eastbound Davie Boulevard, said police spokeswoman Sonya Friedman. "I don't think [the driver) even stopped, really," Friedman said. Both the moped and the car were eastbound on Davie just west of Southwest 35th Avenue when the accident occurred at 2:11 a.m. Rios is in serious but stable condition in the intensive care unit at Broward General Medical Center.